◾ Staring at the Sky

◾ Entries tagged withgame: portal 2

I've been playing my way, slowly, through a second run of single-player for Portal 2, taking the time to really appreciate the level design and voice acting that Valve put in here, not to mention just trying for Achievements (in interest of not spoiling, two with the least-spoiler-tastic names I'm working on are "Smash TV" and "Overclocker", which I keep missing by seconds, damn it). I'm also playing through co-op with a friend, which is also a lot of fun and takes some amount of mind-bending to figure out.

Which means I'm also glad that Valve announced Friday that they're going to be releasing free DLC sometime this summer that includes new test chambers and challenge levels. Score.

The "problem", and I use that word lightly, here is that the time I spend playing Portal 2 means time I'm not playing any of the other games on my very long list of games on Steam. Or on the PS2. Or PS3 or 360. My life is hard.

Finished Portal 2 last night. (Note to self: remember, momentum is conserved!) Oh my god, THIS GAME. It's fantastic and clever and mind-bending in all the right ways. The story and dialogue are as sharp as can be. And despite the fact that she doesn't talk, Chell might be one of my top female game characters. (Word of God apparently says because she's too obstinate and pissed off at these shennanigans.) Chell is a goddamn ninja and makes physics bend to her will, as apparent in the official Portal 2 Boots trailer.

In any case, more fun and games in the Enrichment Center, and some interesting history lessons on Aperture Science itself. Plus amazing gameplay and puzzles, and seriously guys, Valve knocked this one out of the park. Unless something mindblowing comes up, Portal 2 has my Game of the Year vote, and it'll be very hard to dislodge it from that spot.

Seriously, I want to go play it again. Just because. I could not stop grinning after I beat it. (There's also the amusing side effect of seeing surfaces at work and home and thinking "I could put a portal there.") I strongly encourage everyone to play these games. They're worth every penny.

(Next on the docket is finishing ME1 and DA1...at some point. I seem to have acquired Civilization V and there's still Portal 2 co-op...)

I promised more detailed bits about my weekend, and I probably should post it before the next one rolls around.

Anyway! Last weekend was a Weekend of Gaming. It started out with a set of countdowns on Thursday night promising something crazy on Friday. First was another Mayonaka TV countdown to the official trailer for Persona 4: the Animation. Which looks awesome. The other countdown was part of Valve's ARG for Portal 2. The ARG had been going on since April 1, and on Friday, revealed GLaDOS@Home, a spoof of SETI@Home, Folding@Home, and other distributed computing projects. The gimmick? Play 13 indie games the ARG used for enough time, and getting enough potatoes for completing certain tasks in them, and Portal 2 would release early.

Cue Steam running a copy of one of the 13 games Friday-Monday.

When I wasn't doing that, I was playing in the Assassins' Guild 3day game, "Fistful of Promises", which was written by a friend of mine. The premise was that you're in a doomed city in the Bronze Age. The enemy's at the gates and has been for three years and the city will fall, and all debts are coming due (enforced by demonic power!). It was an intriguing look at inevitability. (Almost half of the in-game deaths were suicides) I very much enjoyed playing my character, even if she was an absolutely terrible human being. (There was a line. My character was three miles past the line with no intention of stopping.) Except it was kind of Momento-style in that she didn't remember she was a terrible human being, and playing that break when she realized the truth was utterly fascinating (the character completely snapped, and suddenly, Nos was not in control of her own body for much of Saturday).

My character ultimately killed herself Friday night, which left me free to then go to Iron Gamer IV. Iron Gamer: couple thousand MAME ROMs from arcade games, put in a randomizer, and then two people have to play whatever comes up. It's crazy and fun and usually very, very funny.

Sunday was more indie games, to the point now where I see colored blocks whenever I listen to my music (thanks, Audiosurf), 3-day wrapup, and then a post-mortem of the game between myself, one GM, and another player involving drinking. Best kind! Especially since I had off Monday and could sleep it off. Which I did. And then got up to play more indie games like Defense Grid (grid-based tower defense!) until Portal 2 came out a whole 10 hours early. Leaving me 2 hours to play it Monday night before I decided to be A Responsible Adult and go to bed at 2am. Despite the fact that I didn't want to, because the game is gorgeous and absolutely incredible. Valve certainly knocked it out of the park with this one. (No, I haven't finished it yet)